Letting the cat out of the bag

is a whole lot easier than trying to put it in

Cold cold chilly cold day at Longleat today. I had major Blip trauma now that I am home LOADS of cute animal pics, but the point of today was the Deadly 60 Easter special with Steve Backshall at Longleat. My youngest's birthday surprise to see one of her TV heros. The surprise was kept right until we got to the ticket office (and they nearly didn't accept her Blue Peter badge - always check they are valid on special event days !!! I had, but they tried to say it wasn't, not for very long though !!) Then she realised there was something different on. Ever so excited and a brilliant show, over too quickly, but worth the journey.

We visit Longleat a few times a year, and normally go when we know it will be quiet. It was PACKED today, to the rafters. Although we didn't seem to have to queue for anything apart from a lunchtime Pizza treat, so I am not sure where all the people from all the cars had disappeared.

Quite a few car loads in the Safari - especially in the Monkey part where the little blighters cuties jump all over your car. A few broken windscreen wipers today. I was more worried about the rhino that came our way, very closely and the little man in the tractor who is there to get between you and the car didn't seem in the slightest bit concerned. My little squeaks of 'but we don't want scratches on our nice new shiny car' fell on deaf ears, We couldn't go anywhere because the cars infront were stuck with a rather amorous Ostrich who was strutting his funky stuff then standing in the middle of the road when he realised the lady of the day wasn't interested at all, his efforts were wasted and he wasn't for moving.

The Lion Pride is ever growing, we went past 3 Lionesses, thought that was it, then 8 lion cubs on a tree trunk, thought that was lucky enough, then the 2 Lions .... then an allsortment of over a dozen all piled together in a heap before the exit gate, well youngest tried to count them and she thinks that was about right.

Looking forward to a summer visit when the gardens are in their full flowery landscaped glory, there'll be time for a visit of the house, the hippo's won't be hiding in the mud to keep warm, the giraffes will be out as it won't be too cold and we can feed them, the new Penguin and Stingray attraction will be up and running AND the SUN will be shining :)